Core Principles and Ethics
This foundational journalistic principle requires reporting to be fair, impartial, and free of personal bias.
What is Objectivity?
This freedom, along with religion, speech, assembly, and petition, is guaranteed by the First Amendment.
What is Freedom of the Press?
This structure places the most important information first, followed by supporting details in descending order of importance.
What is the Inverted Pyramid?
A reporter should avoid this type of question because it suggests the desired answer
What is a Leading Question?
The nameplate of the newspaper on the front page is also known by this decorative term.
What is the Flag (or Nameplate)?
This legal term describes defamation that is written or published.
What is Libel?
This legal standard for libel against a public figure requires knowing the statement was false or having a reckless disregard for the truth.
What is Actual Malice?
This section of a story contains the reporter's name and title placed beneath the headline.
What is the Byline?
Statements that can be fully attributed to the source by name and title are considered to be this ground rule.
What is On the Record?
This copyediting mark is used to disregard a previous correction and revert to the original text.
What is Stet?
This late 19th-century era was characterized by sensationalism and exaggerated stories designed to shock and sell papers.
What is Yellow Journalism?
This 1969 Supreme Court case protects student free speech unless it causes a substantial disruption to the school environment.
What is Tinker v. Des Moines?
This part of a news story must summarize the 5 W's and H and grab the reader's attention.
What is the Lead (or Lede)?
This question type is used to confirm specific facts like dates or numbers, often resulting in a brief, factual answer.
What is a Closed-ended Question?
This is the small unit of measurement, 1/72 of an inch, used for font size.
What is a Point?
This is the limited, credited use of copyrighted material for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, or education.
What is Fair Use?
This is the practice of a school administration reviewing a student publication's content before it is printed.
What is Prior Review?
In sports writing, a game story often focuses on this, rather than a chronological play-by-play.
What is a Single Turning Point (or Emotion/Key Play)?
This question type is used immediately to seek clarification when a source gives a vague or incomplete answer.
What is a Follow-up Question?
The grammatical error of joining two independent clauses with only a comma is known as this
What is a Comma Splice?
This early 20th-century era was defined by investigative journalists who exposed social ills and corporate fraud.
What is Muckraking?
The 1988 Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier ruling grants school administrators the right to censor student speech for this reason, as long as it's a legitimate educational concern.
What is Potential Privacy Invasion (or Grammatical Quality)?
The lead of a sports story must clearly state the significance of the result and this other key piece of information.
What is the Final Score?
Reporters primarily use a direct quote to convey a source's unique personality, emotion, or this.
What is an Opinion?
This typography term describes adjusting the uniform space between all letters in a text block, not just a specific pair.
What is Tracking?